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Flow Developer Terms of Service

Flow Search Corporation ("Flow Company, "we", "us" and/or "our"") maintains an open platform that expects to support the millions of people and applications around the world who are sharing and discovering content and other data. We want to empower our ecosystem partners to build valuable businesses around the information on our website ("Flow" or the "Flow Site"). At the same time, we aim to strike a balance between encouraging interesting development and protecting the rights of the Flow Company and its users.

These Terms of Service ("Rules") will evolve along with our ecosystem as developers continue to innovate and find new, creative ways to use the Flow API (Application Programming Interface), so please check back periodically to see the most current version. You shall not do anything prohibited by the Rules, but feel free talk to us if you think we should make a change or give you an exception.

I. Flow Content

1. All use of the Flow API and content, documentation, code, and related materials made available to you on or through the Flow Site ("Flow Content") is subject to and must comply with these Rules. As a reminder, you and your Service (as defined below) are subject to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

2. You may use the Flow API and Flow Content in connection with the products or services you provide (your "Service") to search, display, analyze, retrieve, view, and submit information to or on the Flow Site. You may use the Flow Company name or logos and other brand elements that the Flow Company makes available in order to identify the source of Flow Content ("Flow Marks") subject to your compliance with these Rules.

3. Your use of the Flow API and Flow Content are subject to certain limitations on access, calls, and use as set forth in these Rules, on dev.Flow.com, or as otherwise provided to you by the Flow Company. If we believe that you have attempted to exceed or circumvent these limitations, your ability to use the Flow API and Flow Content may be temporarily or permanently blocked. We may monitor your use of the Flow API to improve the Flow service and to ensure your compliance with these Rules.

4. You will not attempt or encourage others to:

  1. sell, rent, lease, sublicense, redistribute, or syndicate access to the Flow API or Flow Content to any third party without prior written approval from us;
    • If you provide an API that returns Flow data, you may only return IDs (including drop IDs, Flow IDs and user IDs)
    • You may export or extract non-programmatic, GUI-driven Flow Content as a PDF or spreadsheet by using "save as" or similar functionality. Exporting Flow Content to a datastore as a service or other cloud based service, however, is not permitted.
  2. remove or alter any proprietary notices or marks on the Flow API or Flow Content;
  3. use or access the Flow API for purposes of monitoring the availability, performance, or functionality of any of the Flow Company's products and services or for any other benchmarking or competitive purposes; or
  4. use Flow Marks in a manner that creates a sense of endorsement, sponsorship, or false association with the Flow Company. You may not use Flow Marks as part of the name of your company or your Service, or in any product, service, name field or logos created by you. All use of Flow Marks, and all goodwill arising out of such use, will insure to Flow Company's benefit.
  5. use or access the Flow API to aggregate, cache (except as part of a Drop), or store place and other geographic location information contained in Flow Content.
  6. charge a premium for access to Drops via SMS other than your Service's standard data and usage rates.

5. Your Service may be an application or client that provides major components of an iFlow-like end user experience (a "Client"). An example of a Client is a downloadable application that displays user timelines and allows users to create and search for Drops. If so, certain additional terms apply, including:

  1. Your Client must use the Flow API as the sole source for features that are substantially similar to functionality offered by the Flow Site. Some examples include trending topics, who to follow, and suggested user lists.
  2. You may not pay, or offer to pay, third parties for distribution of your Client. This includes offering compensation for downloads (other than transactional fees), pre-installations, or other mechanisms of traffic acquisition.
  3. Your Client cannot frame or otherwise reproduce significant portions of the iFlow service. You should display Flow Content from the Flow API.
  4. You may not store non-public user profile data or content.
  5. You may not use Flow Content or other data collected from end users of your Client to create or maintain a separate drop update or social network database or service.

6. You do not have a license to Flow Content submitted through your Service other than the rights granted in these Rules.

II. General Policy

1. Maintain the integrity of Drops.

  • Don't edit or revise user-generated content delivered through the Flow API except as necessary due to technical limitations or requirements of any networks, devices, services, or media.
  • Identify the user that authored or provided the Flow Content or Drop unless you are either providing Flow Content or Drops in an aggregate form, or need to make Drops anonymous due to user privacy or security concerns.

2. Get users' express permission before:

  • sending Drops or other messages on their behalf. A user authenticating through your application does not constitute consent to send a message.
  • modifying their profile information or taking account actions (including following, unfollowing, and blocking) on their behalf.
  • adding annotations data, or other content to a user's Drop. If your application allows users to send Drops or other content to the Flow Site, show the user exactly what will be published.
  • republishing Flow Content accessed through means other than via the Flow API or other tools that may be provided to you by us, or in a manner inconsistent with the Display Guidelines.

3. Your Service must not:

  • use business names and/or logos in a manner that can mislead, confuse, or deceive users.
  • confuse or mislead users about the source or purpose of your application.
  • use as its Application Website URL an unrelated URL, a site intended to entice or encourage users to violate our rules, a spam or malware site, or a shortened URL to mask the true destination.
  • replicate, frame, or mirror the Flow Site or its design.
  • impersonate or facilitate impersonation of others in a manner that can mislead, confuse, or deceive users.

4. Respect the privacy and sharing settings of Flow Content. Do not share, or encourage or facilitate the sharing of protected Flow Content. Promptly change your treatment of Flow Content (for example, deletions, modifications, and sharing options) as changes are reported through the Flow API.

5. Don't create or distribute spam.

  • Spam can take many forms.
  • If your application performs automatic actions (including Drops or other content updates), make sure you comply with all rules
  • Do not mass-register applications. This includes:
    • creating tokens/applications for the purpose of preventing others from using or selling those names, or other commercial use.
    • using feeds of third-party content to update and maintain accounts under the names of those third parties; and/or
    • submitting multiple applications with the same function under different names for the purpose of name squatting.
  • Do not facilitate or encourage the publishing of:
    • links to malicious content
    • pornographic or obscene images to user profile images and background images; and/or
    • illegal and /or inappropriate content.

6. Respect user privacy.

  • Your Service must display a privacy policy. Clearly disclose what you are doing with information you collect from users.
  • Clearly disclose when you are adding location information to a user's Drops, whether as a geotag or annotations data. Be clear about whether you are adding a place or specific coordinates. If your application allows users to Drop with their location be sure that it complies with the best practices.
  • You should not solicit another developer's consumer keys or consumer secrets especially if they will be stored or used for actions outside of that developer's control. Keys and secrets that are compromised will be reset by the Flow Company. For example, online services that ask for these values in order to provide a "drop-branding" service are not allowed.
  • Do not facilitate or encourage the publishing of private or confidential information.

7. Be a good partner to Flow Company.

  • If you display Drops in an offline context, do so according to the guidelines.
  • Respect the features and functionality embedded with or included in Flow Content or the Flow API. Do not attempt to interfere with, intercept, disrupt, filter, or disable any features of the Flow API or Flow service, and you should only surface actions that are organically displayed on the Flow Site.
  • If your application causes or induces user accounts to violate these Rules (for example, by redroping spam updates, repeatedly posting duplicate links, etc.), it may be suspended or terminated.
  • Respect the intellectual property rights of others.
  • We may suspend or revoke access if we believe you are in violation of these Rules or the spirit of these principles. If you are suspended, do not apply for or register additional API tokens.

III. Flow Functionality in your Service

1. Flow Login

End users must be presented with the option to log into the Flow Site via the OAuth protocol. End users without a Flow Site account should be given the opportunity to create a new Flow Site account as provided by the Flow Company. You must display the "Connect with Flow" option at least as prominently as the most prominent of any other third party social networking sign-up or sign-in marks and branding appearing on your Service.

2. General

  1. If you allow end users to create social updates from your own social service or a third party social networking, micro-blogging, or drop update provider integrated into your Service (an "Update"), you must also display a prominent option to publish that content (or a link if the Update is not text or longer than 140 characters) on the Flow Site. Only link back to the same Update or content on the other service if the Update is longer than 140 characters.
  2. All URLs referencing content in the Update (for example, a web page, photo, video, or text longer than 140 characters) should direct users back to the page where that content is displayed, rather than any interstitial or intermediate page. You can require users to sign-in to access that page, but the content cannot otherwise be restricted from being viewed.
  3. If your Service displays Updates commingled with Drops, you must ensure that Drops reference the Flow Site as the source.

3. Flow Identity

Once an end user has authenticated via the "Connect with Flow" option, you must clearly display the end user's Flow Site identity. Flow Site identity includes visible display of the end user's avatar, Flow Site user name, and the Flow Site logo. Displays of the end user's followers on your Service must clearly show that the relationship is associated with the Flow Site.

IV. Commercial Use

It is our goal to provide you, our ecosystem partner, with a policy that is clear and transparent about what you can do to monetize your Service. This is best summed up in two principles:

  • Respect user content -- Drops may be used in advertisements, not as advertisements.
  • Respect user experience -- Build your Service around the information flow stream, not in the information flow stream.

1. Flow Ads. We reserve the right to serve advertising via the Flow API ("Flow Ads"). If you decide to serve Flow Ads once we start delivering them, we will share a portion of advertising revenue with you per our then-current terms and conditions.

2. Advertising Around Flow Content

  1. We encourage you to create advertising opportunities around Flow Content that are compliant with these Rules. In cases where Flow Content is the primary basis of the advertising sale, we require you to compensate us (recoupable against any fees payable to us for data licensing). For example, you may sell sponsorships or branding around gadgets or iframes that include Drops and other customized visualizations of the Flow Site with prior permission.
  2. You may generally advertise around and on sites that display Drops, but you may not place any advertisements within the Flow Site stream on your Service other than Flow Ads.
  3. Your advertisements cannot resemble or reasonably be confused by users as a Drop. For example, ads cannot have drop actions like "ReDrop", "Favorite", and "Reply". And you cannot sell drop actions or the placement of drop actions on your Service.
  4. You may advertise in close proximity to the Flow Site timeline (e.g., banner ads above or below timeline), but there must be a clear separation between Flow Content and your advertisements.

3. Using Flow Content. Get the users' permission before:

  • using their content on a commercial durable good or product (for example, using a Drop on a t-shirt or a poster or making a book based on someone's Drops);
  • creating an advertisement that implies the sponsorship or endorsement on behalf of the user; or
  • using content in a manner that is inconsistent with the Display Guidelines and would require the user's permission under applicable law.

V. Other Legal Terms

1. Termination.

You may discontinue your access to the Flow API and your use of the Flow Site and any Flow Content at any time. The Flow Company reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to restrict, suspend, or terminate these Rules and your access to all or any part of the Flow Site, Flow Content and/or Flow API, at any time and for any reason without prior notice or liability. The Flow Company reserves the right to change, suspend, or discontinue all or any part of the Flow Site, Flow Content and/or Flow API at any time without prior notice or liability. The Flow Company may also terminate any licenses hereunder for any reason. The Flow Company will not be liable for any costs, expenses, or damages as a result of its termination of these Rules. Upon termination of these Rules, for any reason, you will promptly cease accessing and using the Flow API, the Flow Site and Flow Content and will delete all Flow Content and any information derived therefrom and all copies and portions thereof, in all forms and types of media from your Service. Sections I(4) and V of these Rules will survive the termination of these Rules.

2. Confidentiality.

You may be given access to certain non-public information, software, and specifications relating to the Flow API ("Confidential Information"), which is confidential and proprietary to the Flow Company. You may use this Confidential Information only as necessary in exercising your rights granted in these Rules (the "Permitted Purpose"). You must keep secret and shall never disclose, publish, divulge, furnish or make accessible any of this Confidential Information to any third party, directly or indirectly, without the prior written consent of the Flow Company in each instance. You shall not embody any of the Confidential Information in any of your products, processes or your Service, or duplicate or exploit any of such Confidential Information, or otherwise use any of the Confidential Information for any purpose other than for the Permitted Purpose. You agree that you will protect this Confidential Information from unauthorized use, access, or disclosure in the same manner that you would use to protect your own confidential and proprietary information of a similar nature and in any event with no less than a reasonable degree of care and adequate measures.

3. Ownership; Feedback.

3.1 Flow Company. You expressly acknowledge that the Flow Company and its end users retain all worldwide right, title and interest in and to the Flow Content, including all intellectual property rights therein. You also acknowledge that as between you and the Flow Company, the Flow Company owns all right, title and interest in and to the Flow API, Flow Marks, and the Flow Site (and any derivative works or enhancements thereof), including but not limited to all intellectual property rights therein. You agree not to do anything inconsistent with such ownership. Any rights not expressly granted herein are withheld. You agree that you will not challenge our ownership of, the validity of any license to use, or otherwise copy or exploit the Flow Marks during or after the termination of these Rules except as specifically authorized herein. If you acquire any rights in the Flow Marks or any confusingly similar marks, by operation of law or otherwise, you will, at no expense to us, immediately assign such rights to the Flow Company.

3.2 You. As between you and the Flow Company, you retain all worldwide right, title and interest in and to your Service, excluding the Flow Content, Flow API, Flow Marks, and the Flow Site (and any derivative works or enhancements thereof) as described in Section V(3.2), including but not limited to all intellectual property rights therein. You may provide us with comments concerning the Flow Content or Flow API or your evaluation and use thereof. You agree that the Flow Company and its designees will be free to copy, modify, create derivative works, publicly display, disclose, distribute, license and sublicense, incorporate, and otherwise use the feedback, including derivative works thereto, for any and all commercial and non-commercial purposes with no obligation of any kind to you.

4. Updates.

We may update or modify the Flow API, these Rules, and other terms and conditions, including the Display Guidelines, from time to time at our sole discretion by posting the changes on the Flow Site or by otherwise notifying you (e.g. via email). You acknowledge that these updates and modifications may adversely affect how your Service accesses or communicates with the Flow API. If any change is unacceptable to you, your only recourse is to terminate your agreement with us by ceasing all use of the Flow API and Flow Content in accordance with Section V(1). Your continued access or use of the Flow Site, Flow API or any Flow Content after any change will constitute binding acceptance of such change.

5. Representations and Warranties; Disclaimer.

5.1 Representations and Warranties. You represent and warrant that:

  1. you have the necessary power and authority to enter into these Rules, and that the performance of your obligations will not constitute a breach or otherwise violate any other agreement or the rights of any third party arising therefrom;
  2. you will maintain throughout the term of these Rules all rights and licenses that are required with respect to your Service; and
  3. your Service and its use, distribution, sale and license, including the use of any license hereunder, does and will continue to comply with all applicable foreign, federal, state, and local laws, rules, and regulations.

5.2 Disclaimer. THE FLOW CONTENT, FLOW API, AND ANY OTHER FLOW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES PROVIDED HEREUNDER ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND ON AN "AS-AVAILABLE" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. THE FLOW COMPANY, ITS AFFILIATES, THEIR RESPECTIVE OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AGENTS, SUPPLIERS, OR LICENSORS (COLLECTIVELY, THE "FLOW COMPANY PARTIES") DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS, IMPLIED, STATUTORY, OR OTHERWISE, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, NONINFRINGEMENT, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, AND ANY WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS ARISING OUT OF COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE. THE FLOW COMPANY PARTIES DO NOT WARRANT THAT THE FLOW CONTENT AND FLOW API AND ANY OTHER FLOW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES PROVIDED HEREUNDER WILL MEET ALL OF YOUR REQUIREMENTS OR THAT USE OF SUCH FLOW CONTENT AND FLOW API WILL BE ERROR-FREE, UNINTERRUPTED, VIRUS-FREE, ACCURATE, RELIABLE, COMPLETE, TIMELY OR SECURE.

6. Limitation of Liability.

IN NO EVENT WILL THE FLOW COMPANY PARTIES BE LIABLE TO YOU FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, EXEMPLARY, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING LOSS OF USE, DATA, BUSINESS OR PROFITS) ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THESE RULES OR YOUR USE OF THE FLOW API, FLOW CONTENT, OR OTHER FLOW PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WHETHER SUCH LIABILITY ARISES FROM ANY CLAIM BASED UPON CONTRACT, WARRANTY, TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE), STRICT LIABILITY OR OTHERWISE, AND WHETHER OR NOT YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH LOSS OR DAMAGE. THE FOREGOING LIMITATIONS WILL SURVIVE AND APPLY EVEN IF ANY LIMITED REMEDY SPECIFIED IN THESE RULES IS FOUND TO HAVE FAILED ITS ESSENTIAL PURPOSE. IN ANY CASE, THE FLOW COMPANY PARTIES' AGGREGATE LIABILITY UNDER THESE RULES WILL NOT EXCEED THE GREATER OF ONE HUNDRED DOLLARS ($100) OR THE AGGREGATE FEES YOU PAID FOR ACCESS TO THE FLOW API IN THE LAST YEAR.

Some sates do not allow exclusion of implied warranties or limitation of liability for incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitations or exclusions may not apply to you. IN SUCH STATES, THE LIABILITY OF THE COMPANY PARTIES SHALL BE LIMITED TO THE GREATEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

7. Indemnification.

You will indemnify, defend, and hold the Flow Company Parties harmless from any and all claims, damages, losses, liabilities, actions, judgments, costs, and expenses (including reasonable attorneys' fees) brought by a third party arising out of or in connection with: (a) any act or omission by you, in connection with your use of the Flow Content, the Flow API, or the Flow Marks; (b) your use of the Flow Content, the Flow API, or the Flow Marks other than as expressly allowed by these Rules; (c) your breach or alleged breach of any of the terms, restrictions, obligations or representations under these Rules; or (d) your Service. You will assume control of the defense and settlement of any claim subject to indemnification by you. We may, however, at any time elect to take over control of the defense and settlement of any such claim. In such case, you agree to cooperate with any reasonable requests assisting our defense of such matter. In any event, you will not settle any such claim without our prior written consent.

8. Miscellaneous.

These Rules constitute the entire agreement among the parties with respect to the subject matter and supersedes and merges all prior proposals, understandings and contemporaneous communications. Any modification by you of these Rules must be in a writing signed by both you and the Flow Company. You may not assign any of the rights or obligations granted hereunder, voluntarily or by operation of law (including without limitation in connection with a merger, acquisition, or sale of assets) except with our prior express written consent, and any attempted assignment in violation of this paragraph is null and void. These Rules do not create or imply any partnership, agency or joint venture. These Rules will be governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of the State of New York, without regard to or application of conflicts of law rules or principles. All claims arising out of or relating to these Rules will be brought exclusively in the federal or state courts of New York, New York, USA, and you consent to personal jurisdiction in those courts. No waiver by the Flow Company of any covenant or right under these Rules will be effective unless memorialized in a writing duly authorized by the Flow Company. If any part of these Rules is determined to be invalid or unenforceable by a court of competent jurisdiction, that provision will be enforced to the maximum extent permissible and the remaining provisions of these Rules will remain in full force and effect.